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A traditional ego-psychology analysis typically focuses on analyzing the patient’s inner life as the main source of problems. In contrast, a relational analyst emphasizes not only the patient’s inner life, but also the mutual relational dynamics of the therapeutic interaction in the session.

In the spirit of its time, traditional psychoanalysis consisted of an authoritarian analyst–patient relationship and promulgated values such as a scientific approach to human affairs, the affirmation of paternalistic gender roles, individual achievement, personal responsibility, and a strongly bounded self.

In this paper, Walls tells how the popular ideas of psychoanalysis and even the self have been selectively informed by Darwin's ideas of competition and individualism. The societal exclusion of Darwin and other scientist's work on the superiority of group cooperation has made for a model of psychology that looks for causes of distress within the in... See more

We must also include in our clinical theories the psychological misery occasioned by actual and often ongoing experiences of social oppression. In part, such socialized misery may be internalized and perpetuated by an individual’s use of mechanisms such as identification with the aggressor, dissociation, denial, and projective identification, which... See more

Psychoanalysis is profoundly influenced by and in turn influences the social, economic, cultural, and political contexts in which it is practiced. Although created as a therapy for individual suffering, psychoanalysis has also always contained important implications for the progressive development of a more humane society and has defined its cures ... See more

Relational psychoanalytic models, sometimes referred to as intersubjective, do not view individuals as discrete centers of experience and action; instead, they assert that all self-experience is ontologically social. They challenge the “myth of the isolated mind” (Stolorow and Atwood, 1992, p. 7) and suggest that psychological experience is derived... See more

Psychological-mindedness (the propensity to take responsibility for one’s problems and to look within oneself for the solutions) is considered by many to be an important criterion for analyzability. Historically, these criteria have operated to exclude many who might otherwise have seemed to be potential beneficiaries of psychoanalytic treatment. I... See more

Peter Kropotkin spend 5 years observing animals in the wilds of Siberia, and having read Darwin, sought to replicate his opersations of the competitive struggle of species in the wild.

Culture and Psychoanalysis  Human suffering often may stem from the way that the culture promotes the pursuit of impossible ideals and unlimited narcissistic gratification that serves an unacknowledged economic purpose benefiting some members of society at the cost of others... Advertising fans the flames of widespread and insatiable narcissis... See more